A note on a nonlinear eigenvalue problem (Q1121458)

The author considers the eigenvalue problem \(-\Delta u-\lambda u=\mu \alpha (x)| u|^{p-2}u\) in \(\Omega\), \(u/\partial \Omega =0\), where \(\Omega\) is a smooth bounded domain in \({\mathbb{R}}^ n\), \(\alpha\) is a bounded nonnegative function (\(\alpha\) \(\not\equiv 0)\), \(\lambda \in (\lambda_ 1,\lambda_ 2)\), and \(p\geq 2\) is strictly less than the critical Sobolev exponent. She shows that this problem has a negative eigenvalue iff the functional \(f(u)=\int_{\Omega}\alpha (x)| u|^ p dx\) is strictly positive on the set \[ \{u\in H^ 1_ 0(\Omega)\setminus \{0\};\quad \int_{\Omega}| \nabla u|^ 2 dx\leq \lambda \int_{\Omega}| u|^ 2 dx\}. \] The uniqueness of such an eigenvalue for \(p=2\) is also proved.